Nextbit acquired by Razer, will cease Robin sales immediately

Nextbit has announced it is being acquired by Razer, ending its run as an independent startup phone company. As part of the transition, it will stop all sales of its first (and only) phone, the Robin, along with accessories. It will, however, commit to honoring warranties for the next six months, and releasing security updates until February 2018.

Nextbit will continue to operate as an independent division inside of Razer to work on what it knows best — mobile hardware and software. The short blog post on Nextbit's community page outlines the move pretty succinctly:

Nextbit will operate as an independent division inside Razer, focused on unique mobile design and experiences. To put it simply, we'll be doing exactly what we've been doing all along, only bigger and better.

Razer is known primarily for its lineup of gaming accessories, but more recently for its move into audacious and popular laptops. Acquiring some interesting software technology and a whole bunch of really smart people definitely makes sense if Razer plans to expand its product portfolio to mobile devices.

From Nextbit's point of view, being acquired by a larger company seemed like an inevitable next step. The Robin was a great phone, particularly as it got on in age and was regularly available for less than $200, but Nextbit never felt like it could carry on selling several generations phones primarily built around a single feature of seamless cloud backup.

The only hope now is that Nextbit doesn't lose the awesome software and design DNA that made it such a unique company in the mobile space that has become increasingly homogenized over the past few years. What this means for a proper Razer phone or tablet in the future is anyone's guess.